The UK's Financial Services Authority today fined Abbey National £2
million for breaching money laundering regulations, the biggest
fine of its kind, after finding that the firm was failing to
identify its customers adequately.
The UK's Financial Services Authority today fined Abbey National plc £2 million for failures in complying with money laundering regulations, the biggest fine of its kind, after it was found that the firm was failing to identify its customers adequately.
Abbey National Asset Managers Limited was also fined £320,000 for systems and control breaches. The FSA said both cases reflected wider control failings, including inadequate monitoring of key regulatory risks, across the Abbey National group over a prolonged period.
Andrew Procter, FSA Director of Enforcement, said:
“The FSA has repeatedly made it clear to the regulated community that it expects all financial firms as part of their compliance regime to establish and maintain strong and effective anti-money laundering procedures.
"The failure by Abbey National to monitor compliance with FSA Money Laundering Rules demonstrated a marked lack of regard for its regulatory obligations. Abbey National failed to ensure that suspicious activity reports were promptly considered and reported to the National Criminal Intelligence Service and to identify customers adequately."
The FSA’s Money Laundering Rules provide that:
"A relevant firm must take reasonable steps to find out who its client is by obtaining sufficient evidence of the identity of any client who comes into contact with the relevant firm to be able to show that the client is who he claims to be."
Documents that can be used to verify a customer’s identity - that is, his or her name and address - include a valid passport, a driving licence and a recent utility bill. For businesses, evidence of the identities of the principal beneficial owners/controllers should generally be obtained as should evidence of the trading address of the business.
See: The FSA's summary (includes links to full reports)
See also:
Money laundering black spots, OUT-LAW News, 10/03/2003
Royal Bank of Scotland fined over money laundering compliance, OUT-LAW News, 17/12/2002
UBS uses software to detect money laundering, OUT-LAW News, 25/03/2002
New EU money laundering directive, OUT-LAW News, 23/11/2001
